Dangers of working without professional indemnity insurance

One thing that you would not wish to be now is a banker who was involved in the recently reported misrepresentation of Libor, and who had failed to ensure that he had adequate professional indemnity insurance (PII). Neither would you wish to be the insurer of bankers who do have adequate cover. In fact, the insurers are getting extremely worried about their potential losses which could be very high. If the current predictions on the potential class actions are correct, an insurance company could sustain losses of around $35 billion.

This is a perfect example of the dangers of working without professional indemnity insurance. In fact it would be very unusual for a banker not to have adequate cover. It is a legal requirement for anyone who provides financial advice to the public to have PII, but this does not apply to many professions; for those having PII is optional.

The bankers had not set out to deliberately damage their clients; if what has been said is to be believed, then they thought that they were doing what was right; even that the Bank of England had encouraged them to misrepresent the true Libor. They certainly did not envisage the disastrous consequences of their actions.

It is just the same in your business. You may be as careful as you can, and you can be acting entirely in good faith when something goes wrong. Accidents happen, mistakes are made, and the consequences can be dire. Society has become very litigious over recent times, and with no-win no-fee solicitors offering their services, taking legal action against a professional in order to recover a supposed loss is a very low risk strategy.

The danger to you is that you could lose your money, your savings and even your house. With professional indemnity deals you can protect yourself against such potential losses for a relatively modest outlay, so play safe; take out PII today.